News Break - Bias and Credibility - Media Bias/Fact Check

QUESTIONABLE SOURCE

A questionable source exhibits one or more of the following: extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency, and/or is fake news. Fake News is the deliberate attempt to publish hoaxes and/or disinformation for profit or influence (Learn More). Sources listed in the Questionable Category may be very untrustworthy and should be fact-checked on a per-article basis. Please note sources on this list are not considered fake news unless specifically written in the reasoning section for that source. See all Questionable sources.

Overall, we rate News Break Left-Center Biased and Questionable due to the use of poor sources and publishing satire as real news, which is fake news when not disclosed.

Detailed Report

Questionable Reasoning: Poor Sourcing, Fake News
Bias Rating: LEFT-CENTER
Factual Reporting: MIXED
Country: USA
Press Freedom Rank: MOSTLY FREE
Media Type: News App
Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: LOW CREDIBILITY

History

Founded in 2015 by Jerry Yang and Jeff Zheng, NewsBreak is a website and popular app for iPhone and Android that aggregates local news based on location. News can also be selected in various categories, from Entertainment to World News. According to their about page, “We surface the most impactful, most relevant news & information, wherever you live and work in the country. We work with thousands of local publishers and content creators to ensure you have access to the best local news sources and perspectives.”

According to Tech Crunch, “News Break now boasts 23 million monthly users with a growing network of more than 10,000 content providers. Sensor Tower estimated the app has more than 50 million installs globally across iOS and Android devices, among which more than 99% are from the U.S.”

Read our profile on the United States government and media.

Funded by / Ownership

News Break is owned by Particle Media, based in San Francisco, California. News Break is funded by IDG Capital which is based in Bejing, China. Revenue is generated through advertising, sponsored content, and local classified ads.

Analysis

In review, News Break is a news aggregator that selects news through AI. When using News Break, whether on the Web or in the app, you are first asked to put in a zip code or city for your local newsfeed. Once this is done, News Break provides news stories from your local newspapers and TV stations. You can also select news from categories such as Headlines, Entertainment, sports, science, and politics.

News Break does not produce its own news reporting; therefore, we determined this source’s bias by analyzing the media outlets they aggregate from. We analyzed the sources used in their headlines and political feeds to assess bias. We looked at 100 different stories and calculated their bias based on MBFC’s rating of those sources. The most common sources used were The Hill, NBC News, CBS News, and ABC News. The final tallies for source selections are below.

Left: 16%
Left-Center: 38%
Least Biased: 40%
Right-Center: 0%
Right: 6%

Bias

In this review, we did not evaluate local news because this would be different for each user. The results indicate that 54% of news leans left, 40% is low biased, and 6% right. Of the 100 sources listed, 2 were from sources we list as Mixed for factual reporting. Further, we searched for the use of poor sources. We found that they have also used Natural News, which is a well-known purveyor of false medical information, especially as it relates to Coronavirus.

Finally, they have published satire as real news, such as this story FLORIDA: 400-POUND WOMAN SURVIVES SEXUAL ASSAULT BY HERD OF MANATEES. The full story originates from World News Daily Report, which clearly displays the tagline ” Where Facts Don’t Matter.” In general, many stories are low biased and factual; however, using poor sources and satire as real news renders them Questionable.

Overall, we rate News Break Left-Center Biased and Questionable due to the use of poor sources and publishing satire as real news, which is fake news when not disclosed. (D. Van Zandt 8/25/2020) Updated (06/13/2022)

Source: https://www.newsbreak.com/